PentimentoI, No Longer

On I, No Longer, Pentimento face heartbreak head-on. Rather than immersing themselves in a world of substances, meaningless sex or bitterness — as predecessors like Taking Back Sunday, Brand New and other core-tinged emo outfits did — the foursome lean into the hurt; there are no coping mechanisms here. It's a move that makes the album that much more poignant, and it's only enhanced by the music, which oscillates between understated and overwhelming.

On the former side, you have tracks like "Gateway," which recalls the plucking on Brand New's "Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't" and "Got My Answer," which is similarly subdued up until its slow-burning crescendo of a conclusion. On the other hand, "Sink or Swim" — one of many allusions to the latent power of bodies of water, and the isolation that they can represent — and "Slow But Sure" recall the poppier and more punk leanings of their self-titled LP, while "My Solution Is In the Lake" holds it in throughout its verses before erupting in its massive choruses.

While lesser bands are content with drowning in their sorrows, I, No Longer finds the titular "I"s revelling in theirs, turning what might have been tears into tidal waves.
(Bad Timing)